


Puppeteer Too

by RockSunner



Series: Smart Adversaries AU [48]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chat Noir Reveal, Episode: s03 La Marionnettiste 2 | The Puppeteer 2, F/M, Identity Reveal, Ladybug Reveal, Mind Control, Puppeteer 2 Spoilers, Romance, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-23 00:40:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20001121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RockSunner/pseuds/RockSunner
Summary: What if Hawk Moth gave The Puppeteer powers that were as strong as the first time?





	1. Wax Job

Adrien was at the Grévin wax museum to make a mold of his hand to replace the one that an over-eager fan had broken off from his wax figure. Later on there would be a publicity photo-shoot where he would pose with his repaired duplicate.

Adrien has his hand in the mold now, waiting for a timer to go off to tell him when it was set.

Véronique, his liaison from the museum staff, and Théo Barbot the sculptor had been called off on an errand somewhere. The only ones left in the room were his friends.

Nino and Alya had been invited along to keep him company, and Alya invited Marinette. This entailed Marinette bringing along the energetic child she was babysitting, Manon Chamack.

Due to a confusing conversation with Nino, Adrien wasn't sure if Marinette still liked him. He hoped to talk with her about it while he waited for the mold to set.

Nino played a trick on Manon, posing at end of a row of wax heads. This excited the little girl into wanting to play too.

"Come on, Marinette!" said Manon. "Let's go downstairs and play hide-and-seek. We can pretend to be statues!"

"We can't, Manon," said Marinette. "We have to stay with Adrien."

"Aw!" said Manon.

Alya bent down to Manon. "We'll play with you."

Taking the little girl by the hand, Alya left with her and Nino.

"Keep Adrien company for us," said Alya. "Don't let him get bored for a second!"

"What? No!" said Marinette, charging the door too late. "Don't leave me alone with him!"

Adrien looked at Marinette with a sad expression. So it was true...

"That's not what I meant to say," said Marinette. "I'm sorry..."

"You're upset with me?" asked Adrien.

Marinette knocked over a bucket of glass eyeballs, which rolled on the floor.

"No, of course not. What makes you say that?" asked Marinette as she picked up the eyeballs.

"Well, Nino told me..."

Marinette stopped picking up eyeballs and came closer.

"Whatever Nino told you, it's nonsense! Don't believe him."

"Whew! So that means you like me? I was afraid you didn't."

"Of course I love... I mean, I quite like you! I mean, you're not just a 'good buddy', you see?"

"Oh all right... but if I'm not a good buddy, what am I to you?"

"You are... the bathroom! I really need to go! Sorry!"

Marinette dashed out the door.

"See you later," said Adrien sadly.

Plagg phased into one of the wax heads and rolled around its eyes from the inside.

"Ooh, Adrien. Girls are so complicated. You'd be better off sticking with Camembert!"

"Silly Plagg! Put that head down before you Cataclysm it."

Plagg set it down on the table and came back to Adrien, hooting with laughter.

"Plagg, do you think I said something wrong? I'm not really good at this," said Adrien.

The timer went off, telling Adrien the mold was ready. He pulled out his hand and headed for the door.

"I'm going to prove to her that I'm her friend!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Manon was playing hide-and-seek with Alya and Nino. She came to a room with figures of akuma villains around the edges, with Ladybug and Chat Noir in the middle in fighting stances.

Manon giggled and posed on the platform with the two heroes, waiting for the two to find her. She planned to jump and scare them.

Alya stopped in front of the statue of herself as the villain Lady WiFi. Next to that was the statue of Nino as The Bubbler.

"Excuse me, Lady WiFi," said Nino. "What's your superpower again? Making me fall deeply in love with you?"

"I don't need superpowers for that," said Alya.

Manon turned her head to look at them. When would they stop the mushy stuff and get back to the game?

Alya stared at her villain figure.

"I know we're not really ourselves when we're akumatized... but it's still strange to see us like that, as super villains."

"That's because you're not looking at it the right way," said Nino. "These aren't super villains – they're people that Ladybug and Chat Noir saved!"

"You're right," said Alya, leaning against Nino.

Nino started to tickle her. "I have been akumatized. I am... the Tickler!"

"Not tickling!" said Alya in mock horror. "Help me, Ladybug and Chat Noir!"

Caught up in their own fun, they ran laughing from the room.

"They forgot about me!" cried Manon. "Why doesn't anybody want to play with me today?"

Manon got off the platform and walked around looking at the villain figures. She stopped in front of The Puppeteer, her akumatized form. She couldn't remember being her, but she had heard stories of how powerful she was.. and how she nearly defeated the heroes.

She took the figure's wand, imagining what it would be like to be that powerful. Nobody would ignore her then!

* * *

Hawk Moth opened the window in his lair, sensing a strong emotion.

"A child who feels abandoned. Kids need so much attention. Lucky for her, she can count on me to give it to her!"

He charged a butterfly with his magic.

"Fly away my little akuma, and give her power to for our benefit!"

As the butterfly sought its prey, Hawk Moth considered her power. It was easy to give someone the same power as before. There would be some variation because of the use of wax figures, but not much.

Should he give her a reduced power? There was danger in letting her control people through figures. Somewhere in the museum was the new figure of Adrien. Perhaps he should limit The Puppeteer to simply bringing wax figures to life. But she came so close to winning the last time! It was worth the risk.

* * *

Alya came back into the villain gallery. "That's it, I'm tired of hiding. Nino, where are you?"

She saw him standing with his back to her in a stiff pose. Giggling to herself, she sneaked forward to tickle him.

Ayla gasped when she felt the coldness of the wax figure dressed in Nino's clothes. It had an expression of shock and horror.

Alya turned to run, but The Bubbler was there with his giant bubble wand out.

"Time to party, dude-ette!" said The Bubbler.

The Puppetter came out of hiding and floated over to the figure of Lady WiFi.

"You didn't play with me like you said you would. Now I'm going to play with you. Lady WiFi, come to life!"

Instantly, Alya became Lady WiFi, taking her place on the platform. Where Alya had been was now a wax figure of her civilian form.

"I'd love to play, Puppeteer," said Lady WiFi.

The Bubbler caught the figures of Nino and Alya in his bubbles and floated them up and out of the way. Lady WiFi added pause symbols to keep the bubbles in place.

"Next will be Chat Noir, and then Ladybug," said The Puppeteer.

* * *

Marinette walked into the gallery of contemporary celebrities, past the statue of Clara Nightingale.

Tiki had persuaded her to try to act like she was in a stage play, to be a super-cool person who could do anything without fear.

"Super-cool! I'm super-cool!" she muttered to herself.

Marinette gasped and jumped back when she saw Adrien. She sighed with relief when he didn't move.

"It's just his statue. Strange, I didn't see it when I came through here before."

Marinette came close and stared longingly. "Wow, it looks so real."

She touched his cheek with one finger. "The wax is as warm as his skin."

She sniffed. "It even has his scent!"

Marinette launched into a flirtatious speech: "Oh, handsome statue of Adrien, your wax is so soft, your yak hair so silky, your glass eyes so... green!"

She plucked one hair and put it in her purse as a keepsake.

"Why am I not a statue? Everything would be so simple for us! Why were we not molded in the same plaster of destiny?"

She put her arms around him.

"Glass eye to glass eye, wax lips on wax lips, embraced for eternity!"

As she kissed him, his lips suddenly became colder and smelled like wax.

Before she could pull away, she too became a wax statue. They were glass eye to glass eye, wax lips on wax lips, embraced for eternity...


	2. Wax On Wax Off

Ladybug and Chat Noir were in the akuma villain gallery. The Puppeteer was there, along with several other villains including Lady Wifi, The Bubbler, The Mime, Evillustrator, and RogerCop.

Ladybug and Chat Noir felt the impulse to bow to Puppeteer, and they did.

"Hello, Mistress Puppeteer," said Chat Noir. "Purrfectly delighted to see you."

"Me too," said Ladybug. "Your wish is my command."

"Whee! I win!" said the Puppeteer. "Now I have so many toys to play with."

Hawk Moth sent a telepathic message. "Puppeteer, make them bring me their Miraculous."

"Why don't you come here instead? That'll be lots more fun!"

Puppeteer flew to an shadowy alcove with a sign:

"HAWK MOTH. At long last, the museum has been able to recreate the master villain. He was reconstructed from news footage of his scarlet form on Heroes Day, and recolored to match snapshots that were taken when he was flitting around the rooftops of the day of the giant meteorite."

"No!" said Hawk Moth. "I'll take back..."

"Hawk Moth, come to life!"

Instantly the wax figure was replaced by the mind-controlled original.

"Now Ladybug and Chat Noir, take off your Miraculous and give them to Hawk Moth. He wins this round."

"Yes, Puppeteer," said Ladybug and Chat Noir in unison.

Ladybug took off her earrings and Chat Noir took off his ring. They handed them to Hawk Moth.

"Why aren't we changing back?" asked Chat Noir after a moment.

"Those aren't your real Miraculous, silly," said Puppeteer. "They're the fake ones that came with the sculptures. Your real ones are back wherever you came from. It's my magic that gives you power – not your Miraculous."

"Then I didn't really win," said Hawk Moth.

"It's more fun this way. We can keep playing forever. Sometimes Ladybug and Chat Noir will win, and take your fake Miraculous. Sometimes you'll win and take theirs."

"How can we play forever, Mistress?" asked Hawk Moth, trying to summon his will. "We will need food and rest."

"We'll use the museum as our base. My mama's statue is here. I'll take it over and then she can take care of us, cook us dinners, and tell us bedtime stories."

"It's a good life," said Ladybug.

* * *

Tikki and Plagg had never been pulled into their Miraculous. As soon as they found their wielders gone, they set off.

"We have to find Master Fu!" said Tikki.

"Right," said Plag. "But do you know where he is?"

"He's in hiding, but I know how to contact him in case of an emergency," said Tikki.

* * *

The Puppeteer and her minions entered the celebrity gallery. They found the statue of Nadja Chamack – she was swiftly recruited as another slave.

Ladybug pointed to the sculptures of Marinette and Adrien in their embrace.

"Mistress Puppeteer, the only thing that can end the fun is if someone finds the real Ladybug Miraculous, activates it, and does a cure," said Ladybug "The earrings are there on my civilian form. I was pretending to kiss the wax statue of my crush, Adrien."

"I was pretending to be a wax statue and I was just about to be kissed by Marinette when I was taken," said Chat Noir.

"Hah! I knew you two liked each other," said Puppeteer.

"I'm very embarrassed. I would scream if my will didn't belong to you," said Ladybug.

"We know each other's identities now," said Chat Noir.

"I would have found that useful information, but it doesn't matter anymore," said Hawk Moth.

"Let's play in here," said The Puppeteer. "We can stop anybody who tries to get the Miraculous."

The minions began a mock battle to amuse their mistress.

* * *

"Hey, we wanna join the fun!" said a voice from a side gallery.

A monkey-themed hero with a staff bounded in, flanked by a horse-themed and a snake-themed one.

"Hawk Moth, these are new heroes and I don't have sculptures for them!" said The Puppeteer. "Who are they?"

"Second Chance," invoked the snake hero, twisting a band on his wrist.

"The snake is Viperion, and he can turn back time," said Hawk Moth. "The horse is Pegasus and he can create portals. The Monkey King is the most dangerous. Don't let him touch you with any object he summons or it will randomly disrupt your power."

"Uproar!" invoked Monkey King, throwing his staff into the air.

"Get the monkey!" ordered Puppeteer.

Evillustrator drew a net over Monkey King. Ladybug tied it onto him with her yo-yo. Other minions leaped to dogpile him. The plastic pineapple that Monkey King summoned fell to the ground, useless.

* * *

"Second Chance!"

"The snake is Viperon, and he can turn back time. The horse..."

"Now, Monkey King!" said Viperion. "Pegasus redirect!"

"Uproar!"

"The Monkey King is the most dangerous. Don't let him touch you..."

"Get the monkey!"

Evillustrator drew a net over Monkey King. Ladybug tied it onto him with her yo-yo. Other minions leaped to dogpile him.

Pegasus leaped up and opened a portal for the falling plastic pineapple. The portal redirected it to hit The Puppeteer in the back.

All the people under Puppeteer's control became small plushies and flopped to the ground.

"No fair!" said Puppeteer. "You cheated!"

Monkey King leaped forward and broke her wand with a stroke of his staff. A purple and black butterfly fluttered out.

Viperion ran to the figure of Marinette and removed her earrings, saying, "Pardon me, my dear."

Viperion put on the earrings, which attached by magic without piercings. "Tikki, spots on!"

In a flash of magic, his green costume became red with black spots.

"I'm not good with yo-yo's, so... Lucky Charm!" said Viperbug.

He got a red butterfly net with black spots. He used it to scoop up the akuma butterfly and force it into the open top of his yo-yo.

"Bye-bye little butterfly."

Then Viperbug threw the butterfly net into the air. "Miraculous Viperbug!"

The swarm of magic butterflies restored all the controlled people and put them back where they were. The wax sculptures were also put back into place.

Marinette and Adrien were still in their kiss. Marinette shrieked and leaped back when she realized she was kissing the real Adrien. Adrien held up his hands apologetically.

They looked around and saw the three heroes, and Manon sitting on the floor next to them.

"W-what happened?" asked Marinette, turning red. "There was nobody in here with us a moment ago."

"You were both controlled by The Puppeteer by means of wax figures," said Pegasus.

"Everything is all right now," said Monkey King.

"Spots off," said Viperion, reverting to his green form. He removed the earrings.

Marinette ran over to Manon, saying, "You got akumatized again! Are you all right?"

Viperion moved beside Marinette and slipped the earrings into her purse. Then he dashed away with the other two heroes.

"I'm okay," said Manon. "I don't remember anything except getting mad when Alya and Nino stopped playing with me and ran off by themselves."

"I'll speak to them about that," said Marinette grimly.

"You and Adrien got all smoochy!" said Marinette. "I knew you were boyfriend and girlfriend."

"It's not like that!" said Marinette. "I thought I was kissing his wax sculpture."

"I was posing as a statue as a joke," said Adrien.

"It wasn't funny! Not funny at all!" said Marinette.

"Did you mean the things you said when you thought I was a sculpture?" asked Adrien.

"We'll talk about that later," said Marinette, gesturing with her head toward Manon.


	3. Waxing and Waning

The Gorilla stopped the car at Manon's home. Nadja Chamack was there waiting.

Marinette got out of the car as Manon ran to her mother.

"Guess what, Mama! I got akoom-tized again!"

"Marinette, what happened?" asked Nadja.

"It was my fault," said Marinette. "I let Alya and Nino talk me into a trip to the wax museum with Adrien, and Manon came along. Alya and Nino took Manon off to play with them to give me some alone time with Adrien."

"They got playing with each other and left me all alone," said Manon. "I got mad and... I got turned into the Puppeteer again."

"Marinette, this simply won't do," said Nadja. "Leaving my child in the care of your irresponsible friends! This is the third time Manon has been akumatized or endangered by a villain on your watch."

"I'm really sorry, M'am," said Marinette, hanging her head in shame.

"I'm going to find another sitter," said Nadja.

"But I like Marinette," said Manon.

"We'll talk about it," said Nadja, leading her daughter inside. "I've heard good things about a sitter who has traveled the world, done many exciting things, and has amazing stories to tell."

* * *

Marinette walked back to the car, where Adrien was standing by the door waiting. She was going to have to face riding back with him alone. It felt very awkward.

Adrien held up his hand to his driver. "I need to talk with Marinette for a minute before we go on."

He walked up to Marinette, who looked away shyly.

"I'm sorr-." both said at once.

"You go first," said Marinette.

"No please, you," said Adrien.

"I- I shouldn't have kissed the statue," said Marinette. "I didn't know it was you. If I had, it wouldn't have been a prank, because..."

"No, no, It's my fault. When you left the workshop, I was so worried you were mad at me, it made me do this stupid prank."

"Of course I'm not mad at you. I'm sorry I made you believe that."

"Is that true? We're still friends, you and me?"

"Of course! But to be safe, maybe we should stop playing pranks on each other."

Adrien chuckled. "I'm bad with jokes. The girl that I love doesn't like my humor much."

"The – the girl you love?"

Marinette hugged herself and looked away.

"Are you okay, Marinette?" asked Adrien.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just glad we're friends."

Then a thought struck Adrien.

"There's one thing I don't understand. We were both controlled, replaced by wax figures," said Adrien.

"That's what the heroes told us," said Marinette distantly. "I don't remember at all."

"How were you controlled?" asked Adrien. "You're not a celebrity and you've never been akumatized. There's no wax sculpture of you."

"B-but... I... Maybe they just thought that's what happened to me. What if it was... Lady WiFi? S-she probably cast a pause symbol on my back or something. I'm sure that's it."

"Do you really think that?" asked Adrien with a hint of suspicion in his voice. "I just noticed something else. Where are the black earrings you always wear?"

Marinette felt her ears and gasped. "Oh no! They're missing! I have to go back to the museum and find them!"

"Check your purse. I noticed Viperion was close to it after he took off Ladybug's earrings."

Marinette took a quick peek into her purse, gasping with relief when she saw Tikki there next to the earrings.

"You've caught me," said Marinette. "Please don't tell anyone I'm Ladybug. Viperion knows, and the other two new heroes. I'm compromised and my family could be in danger."

"You can trust me," said Adrien.

"I do trust you. You're a... good... friend," said Marinette, almost choking on the words.

"Before this I said that the girl I love doesn't like my humor much."

"Don't say any more about that, please."

"I meant you, Marinette."

"M-me? B-but I've never told you I don't like your humor."

"It's my cat-astrophic purr-sistence in making puns, m'Lady."

"Chat? That means... both of us were..." said Marinette.

"Captured through our superhero statues," said Adrien. "I don't think Puppeteer would have bothered to bring my civilian statue to life, even if it wasn't off the floor today for repairs."

"But... you can't be Chat... he's too different from you! He's so wild and silly."

"You act differently as Ladybug, too. You have complete confidence that you never have with me as a civilian."

"I'm shy... because of the feelings I have for you."

"I have them, too. Like I said, the girl that says my sense of humor is off, is Ladybug – you."

"I'm my own rival? And I could never love Chat because of you."

"I'm my own rival, too. But I'm not sure you care for the real me. You put me on a pedestal. I let out more of my real personality as Chat than as Adrien."

"Don't you do the same for me as Ladybug? In regular daily life I stammered and got my words all twisted up when I talked to you. You couldn't see my real feelings."

"Whenever I asked you, you denied them. Even today. Hearts that are upside-down spades? Really?"

"I was embarrassed that Manon was telling you about my photo shrine."

"It's not just about being into fashion?"

"No, it's not. I'm... into you. Ooh, that sounds so lame!"

"It's not. I'm happy to know your real feelings. Please don't lie to me anymore."

"I won't. I'm happy I was finally able to tell you."

"I'm happy, too. Let's start spending time to get to know each other better. The real us, all sides of us. All right?" asked Adrien.

"Much more than all right!" said Marinette.

Gorilla honked the horn and they got into the car, beaming at each other.

THE END


End file.
